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Privacy in the desktop app

File paths never leave your Mac. The app reads folders on your Mac to measure them, shows you the result, and sends that information nowhere. It counts which screens open and which actions run, with Google Analytics; a count never carries a path, a file name or your email. There is no advertising. The command line counts nothing.

On your Mac​

Logs, reports, receipts and archives are written to ~/.macleanup/ and stay there, shared with the command line. Settings live in ~/.macleanuprc and in the app's local storage.

What syncs when you sign in​

An account is optional. Signed in with Google, each run summary syncs only:

SyncedNever synced
Section idsFile and folder paths
Byte countsFile names or contents
Statuses — completed, skipped, failedReports, logs and receipts
macOS versionArchives

The account itself holds your email address and name from Google, your plan, your monthly run count and your saved shortcuts. It is stored with Supabase, the backend provider. Payments go through Polar, which tells the app your plan and payment status; the card number never reaches macleanup.

The same rule is a guarantee of the JSON event stream: path appears only in the local stream, log and report.

Network requests​

  • Update check — contacts GitHub Releases.
  • Sign-in and sync — only when you sign in.
  • Checkout — opens in your browser.
  • Release notice — the app reads the newest release notice from the backend provider at start, every 15 minutes and when you return. It sends the product's version and nothing about you.
  • Assistant — only when you ask. It sends your question and per-section numbers, sizes and counts, never paths. Answers come from Anthropic's Claude models through FilesHub; a spoken question is transcribed by Groq and the recording is not stored. See Assistant and backups.
  • Receipt backups — only on Pro or Team, when you back up or restore. The summary is stored privately with FilesHub and holds no paths.
  • Usage counts — a screen or action name and simple numbers, such as how many sections a preview covered, sent to Google Analytics with a random counting ID for the install (and your account's random ID when signed in).
  • Release emails — only when you turn on Account → Emails (app 5.3.2 or later). Your Google address joins the optional release list on FilesHub; the switch or the unsubscribe link in any email takes it off again.

Each service receives normal request details such as an IP address.

Emails​

Account emails (receipts, invites, a scheduled run's result) and rare important product updates, such as a required update or a change to the plans or terms, go to every account. Release news and other optional updates go only to people who ask for them, on the Account screen or the website's download page. The full wording is in the Privacy Policy.

Download or delete your data​

You can download your account data or delete your account from the Account screen. Deleting it removes the account, plan record, synced run numbers and receipt backups from the servers; everything on your Mac stays until you remove it. The full policy is the Privacy Policy.

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